Sydney Pre-Screening Description and Story Details

Yesterday a press event was held in Sydney, Australia to help promote Transformers: Age of Extinction that Mark Wahlberg participated in. The event included around 15 minutes of footage from the film that based on the description (below) was probably the same as what was shown to theater execs at CinemaCon. A TFW2005 member posted a blog post describing the footage scenes. The info does confirm a few fan story assumptions. Since it is a description of story beats, spoiler warning!

Descriptions of Transformers 4 CinemaCon Footage

As previously mentioned, around 14 minutes of footage was shown from Transformers: Age of Extinction to attendee's of CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Yesterday was light on details but today various websites have now provided a description of what was shown. In most cases it really is just longer versions of the scenes teased in the trailers. Sadly no videos. Below is a summation or you can read the info at the links: i09 | IGN | ComingSoon. Thanks to Feris O. for the links.

Spoiler Warning!

"Iconic" TF Franchise Shows Off Footage at CinemaCon, Maybe Story Tidbit

Today at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas, fourteen minutes of Transformers: Age of Extinction footage was shown off. Sadly zero details really on what was shown. No surprise as the 'Con is thrown by the Hollywood studios to show off their potential summer hits for theater owners so the public is not invited. Still a tiny bit of information has been leaked.

While Michael Bay was in LA continuing post-production on TF4, Mark Wahlberg was very happy to upsell Transformers, calling it the "the most iconic franchise in movie history." (Who am I disagree with that assessment). He also once again said the movie is a standalone from the previous trilogy so newbies to the franchise should be welcome (there are still TF newbies?).

New Transformers: Age of Extinction Plot, Character Details?

Brazilian site Omelete has posted a new, more detailed description for the story and main human characters for Transformers: Age of Extinction. This has not been officially confirmed but does go along with previous synopsis, interview info and leaked information from the past few months so inclined to believe its accuracy. Below is a translation from TFW2005. Spoiler warning (just in case).

Story Tidbits, Video from Transformers 4 Hong Kong Sets

Chinese website M1905 has posted a bunch of video from the various Hong Kong sets of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Sprinkled in the set are interviews with some of the cast. Most of the videos are in Mandarin but you can catch a lot of behind the scenes stuff as Michael Bay, Jack Reynor (Shane Dyson), Mark Wahlberg (Cade Yeager), Nicola Peltz (Tessa Yeager), Stanley Tucci and the crew work. TFW2005 was able to gleam a few story tidbits (below). The full set of videos is here. As for the sword image to the left, that was found by GabrielPrime and seems to an image of the Cybertronian sword that Mark Wahlberg's been carting around on many of the film's sets.

- Reynor: Shane is secret Irish race car driving boyfriend of Tessa's due to dad's no dating rule. Gains trust of Cade by saving Tess and Cade's life early in the movie.
- Tessa's mother is dead, result is Cade being over protective of her.
- Cade and Optimus become friends due to their (similar) code of ethics.
- Prime forced into situation of choose doing the right thing over his own life while Cade must choose between himself or his daughter (guessing translation problem because choice is always obvious for hero characters, Prime especially)
- Li Bingbing's character is owner of a factory in China (guessing something to do with the rumored Chinese Transformers)
- One Cybertronian speaks Mandarin only.
- The movie's third act takes place entirely in Hong Kong.

Transformers 4 Prop Reveals Potential Story Spoiler

After learning one of the potential title for a future Transformers 4 tie-in video game as "Megatron Returns", a new imaged spotted by TFW2005's Evac167 has revealed the head of Megatron prop. Its unknown where the picture was taken (I assume Chicago) but the prop looks about like how Megatron's head looked like after all the damage it suffered in Transformers 2 and 3. No clue how this prop may tie into the movie but I would not be surprised if Megatron gets resurrected in some form or fashion yet again. Which for movies is kind of odd but kind of a norm for the character in the comics.

Transformers 4 Call Sheet Reveals Character Names, Story Spoilers

An image of a Transformers 4 call sheet has been posted on Reddit that reveals the first names of most of the key cast, names of several Transformers and story tidbits including confirming a long time rumor. The image is a bit tiny as a screenshot from an iPhone but has enough detail to read the entire call sheet which breaks down which characters, vehicles, and scenes that are being filmed on the day and the days ahead.

Suffice it to say - SPOILER WARNING. Clicking the image or reading summary below are definite spoilers. Thanks to KennyD for the link.

Update: Call sheet image pulled at request of Paramount Pictures publicity and legal departments (which has the unintended side effect of verifying its authenticity).

Transformers 4 Remember Chicago Billboard

A billboard found by @JFall in the Granger, Texas area asks that drivers "Remember Chicago". The sign is part of the filming going on in the state and in one glance reinforces that Transformers 4 takes place 4 years after the events of Dark of the Moon. It might hint at part of the story of the movie as it seems to suggest that maybe no aliens, including Autobots, are welcome on the planet. Thanks to Sam N. for the link. Photo credit: @jfall

Transformers 4 Set Mostly in China?

Marc Ganis, the president of Jiaflix Enterprises, suggests interesting things about Transformers 4 saying the story "has a great deal to do with China. Effectively, China is a character in it." Jiaflix Enterprises is essentially hoping to become the Netflix of China and is part of the "Cooperation Agreement" with Paramount to finance a portion of filming in China and Hong Kong that includes a Chinese only reality show to cast actors for the film. The agreement is part of a move to increase Hollywood's status in the country which is currently the 2nd largest movie market in the world and growing.

Transformers Age of Extinction Cheat Sheet

This is a "cheat sheet" for Transformers 4 that attempts to summarize the details on the movie as it comes in. As a result consider this a Spoiler Warning. Verified means the information either came from someone associated with the film (an actor, director, producer, etc.) or through mainstream press (CNN, THR, etc.) so unlikely to be false (but no guarantees). Feel free to comment on any inaccuracies or new info that isn't reflect in the sheet. The below is ultimately speculation and rumor until officially confirmed through those with the production of the film.

Bay on TF4: "Chase from Hell"

While its not much to go on, Michael Bay provided a micro-tease for Transformers 4 that starts filming in a month or so. He told ComingSoon that the plot of the movie is a "Chase from Hell." Hopefully more details might emerge as Bay makes the rounds to promote his film Pain & Gain that is coming out on April 26th. Feel free to speculate in the comments exactly what he means with his tease.

As for the logo attached to this post it was created by Pixel Rally's Jeffrey Marshall. It is NOT an official new logo from Paramount or Hasbro even though it looks so awesome I understand if others might think so. If grabbing it to post elsewhere, please make sure to give him and his site credit. Also thanks to Jeff for the new banner at the top of the blog. He provided a few other Autobot versions that I will also post in the future.

Transformers Verified for Detroit with Plot Details

The Michigan Film Office has issued a press release verifying that Transformers 4 is returning to the state to film. Based on the $20 million tax credit on the rather precise figure of $81,933,992 that is expected to spent filming TF4, it indicates that the production will spend a significant amount of its schedule in the state. Previously Transformers and Transformers 3 production spent a few weeks in Detroit area filming various scenes. With the release is an interesting new description on the plot of the film.

As humanity picks up the pieces, following the conclusion of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Autobots and Decepticons have all but vanished from the face of the planet. However, a group of powerful, ingenious businessman and scientists attempt to learn from past Transformer incursions and push the boundaries of technology beyond what they can control – all while an ancient, powerful Transformer menace sets Earth in his crosshairs. The epic adventure and battle between good and evil, freedom and enslavement ensues.

I suspect Unicron fans will be all over the last two sentences.

Michael Bay Denies Leak, Provides Script Progress Update

Michael Bay has posted on his website that this morning's script leak of the Transformers 4 script is a fake. Even better he let us know that they are up to page 70 on the script so probably a touch over halfway done. In general most scripts sort of work out to about page a minute so the final script will likely clock in at around 120 pages or so depending on the level of detail it provides.

Some Internet sites this morning reported that some document recovery guy has found a legitimate 120 page script of Transformers 4. I can absolutely 100 percent say this is completely false. The only two people in the world that have our unfinished script are Kruger and myself. Also we are only up to page 70 in our T4 script. Maybe this guy has a cartoon or something else – but definitely not our movie!

Bay

Michael Bay On Walhberg, Shia and When of Transformers 4

In the Friday episode of TMZ Live, Michael Bay spoke with the site about the casting of Mark Wahlberg in Transformers 4, Shia LaBeouf's anti-Transformers comments and dropped a few hints on the story of TF4. The video is below, the phone interview starts at the around 18:00 point. TFW2005 also has a transcript here.

Highlights:
- Decided that casting Mark Wahlberg "was a great way to really take this franchise in a different direction. We’re doing a lot of things that are going to really make it feel fresh and new. ...I love working with him and he’s got a great sense of comedy and great pathos. He’s a guy who can handle great action."
- Bay said Mark was interested, "I really want to show a movie to my kids."
- He was also forgiving of Shia LaBeouf's bashing Transformers dismissing it as "fame is very hard on young people." Also said LaBeouf is a "great, great guy. He's a great actor and I have nothing but respect for him."
- Transformers 4 takes place four years after the end of Dark of the Moon. "Same lineage ...full new direction and feels very natural."
- Bay also said that the release date is Thursday July 4th, 2014, which is different then the previously said June 27th release date but all those fours do make more sense from a marketing perspective.